Update: Xbox 360 with internal HD DVD drive is a possibility

Recently, we reported that rumors of an Xbox 360 console with a built-in HD DVD drive was making its away around the internet thanks to an article published in Smarthouse.

The rumor was squashed however, when a Toshiba official denied it completely saying "It’s got nothing to do with us. But we know Microsoft doesn’t want to include the HD DVD drive so as not to limit the user’s experience."

The Toshiba camp is now claiming that the quote was misquoted and the official statement should have said, "Toshiba has no comment to make on this matter. The Xbox 360 is not a Toshiba product."

Although the new quote does not give any new evidence to fuel the rumor it is certainly a backtrack from the first published quote and leaves the door open for the possibility of the console.

Game Developers would like it, new games have a lot of textures, sound, etc, currently they are capped at 8.5 gig, HD-DVD up that to 30 gig, which is still less than Sony has available to them with the Blu-ray, at currently, up to 50 gig.

I think this whole thing is bull. Unlesss MS is planning to offer an upgrade for real cheap or free it would be a consumer nightmere for the Xbox and MS. and if they do come out with one it will just be a movie player and the 360 will still use DVD9 disks for the games not HDDVD

Originally posted by mgoat: Game Developers would like it, new games have a lot of textures, sound, etc, currently they are capped at 8.5 gig, HD-DVD up that to 30 gig, which is still less than Sony has available to them with the Blu-ray, at currently, up to 50 gig.

There's a big Difference between the 360 & PS3. The 360 has games and lots of em:) Sony has a few :( Even Warhawk on the PS3 is only a 700MB download) I cant see games coming out on HD but if it did it will be something like Elderscrolls 5. But then I reckon Blu-ray & HD DVD will be replaced by Hard Drives. There will be no discs you just download your film or game. If you want to burn it to a disc for future storage or to make space you will. Only it will only play on that console/media player

Originally posted by mgoat: Game Developers would like it, new games have a lot of textures, sound, etc, currently they are capped at 8.5 gig, HD-DVD up that to 30 gig, which is still less than Sony has available to them with the Blu-ray, at currently, up to 50 gig.

...No, there is no need for it yet. MS was smart to not wast their time and money including HD-DVD support for games. There are no games that need that amount of space, 8.5gb is fine for this generation of console. If they do include an HD-DVD drive it WILL NOT support games.

News - rumor has it that blah blah blah
MS/Sony - Not true
News - "so and so" from the "blah blah" camp has made a comment on the latest rumors.
MS/Sony - Still not true
News - rumor has it that the last rumor may be half true
MS/Sony - .....ok.....it's all true

What an annoying pattern. Am I the only one that finds this stuff ridiculous?? :-P

Originally posted by emugamer: News - rumor has it that blah blah blah
MS/Sony - Not true
News - "so and so" from the "blah blah" camp has made a comment on the latest rumors.
MS/Sony - Still not true
News - rumor has it that the last rumor may be half true
MS/Sony - .....ok.....it's all true

What an annoying pattern. Am I the only one that finds this stuff ridiculous?? :-P

Nope... I find it annoying too. Would you "rumor rats" quit saying crap about MS putting games on HD-DVD!!! By the time a "next-gen" disc such as HD or Blu-Ray wins and becomes more standard, we'll be buying Xbox 1440's!

the whole thing about 8.5 gigs being plenty isnt so true anymore. i mean look at Blue Dragon for 360. it takes 3 DVDS thats not normal. and im sure a few others will follow in the future. however HDDVD for games isnt quite needed yet since this thing with large games isnt overly prevelant yet. an HD-DVD drive shouldnt be needed till the next generation of game systems. and the one guy was right. whoever wins this so called HD/BR war. then we'll see what will be in the next XBOX 720.

who cares anyway. half the people that want to watch movies in HD dont even have the TV to watch it on. or if they do. its not a 1080p TV. so screw it. 720p DVD's have lots of life left in them.

i dunno if any of u noticed. but some of the lower quality movie studio DVD's are pressed on 4.7 gig dvds. not the DVD9 ones used for big block buster movies. so clearly the need to watch movies in high quality isnt even an issue for the movie industry largly. unless u count the big studios.

The 360 is aging so moving up to HDVD in 2 years is a good plan to keep it going until a replacement can be polished and ready for the public.

heres how things should go drop the fing core unit tis fcking pointless, drop the premium to the core price, make all new premiums with the 120HDD, or unlock the HDD,by the end of next year have a special HDVD enabled elite going for 60$ more(500) then by the end of 09 or mid 010 I want all units to have Hdvd in them at no extra cost.

Now if MS would drop the core and unlock the HDD sale 30$ kits as to where you can install any sata HDD in them, and made all new games work with HD caching in order to overcome basic space limits MS could get away to 011 or 012 on this, but frankly MS needs to have a clear 3 year plan to either bring out a new console or HDVD in their systems because without alot of help the 360 will be old news and not relevant to high end gaming.

I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The 360 has been getting great reviews on loads of game releases and all I hear is idiots complaining that games can only be Next-Gen this and that if it's more than 8.5 gigs,ridiculous.
Millions of 360 owners are enjoying games while everyone here is spouting crap about how HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is so essential to the future of gaming.
I really do wonder about the sad minds out there that need to dictate what gaming should be by shouting out numbers,Mhz,processing ability,future optimiztions but missing the whole point entirely.
Have people just got sick of gaming and need to whinge about why the world ain't quite perfect...FFS!
Right....back to some gaming,BYE...

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

They also said they would need a bigger hard drive and now 2 years later they do, and in 2 years they will need Hdvd gaming as a last shot in the arm to keep the 360 relevant as they work on the 360s replacement.

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

They also said they would need a bigger hard drive and now 2 years later they do, and in 2 years they will need Hdvd gaming as a last shot in the arm to keep the 360 relevant as they work on the 360s replacement.

A 20gb HDD and 120gb HDD are compatible with one another though. Thats like arguing if the 360 had 4.7gb games and then switched to dual layer 8.5gb DVDs... All thats changing is the capacity of an optical format thats already supported. HD-DVD isn't supported... What you are arguing makes no sense at all especially since having a 20gb HDD still allows you to play ALL of games that the 120gb HDD allows you to play. No one is being singled out with the HDD situation, so what exactly is your point?

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

They also said they would need a bigger hard drive and now 2 years later they do, and in 2 years they will need Hdvd gaming as a last shot in the arm to keep the 360 relevant as they work on the 360s replacement.

A 20gb HDD and 120gb HDD are compatible with one another though. Thats like arguing if the 360 had 4.7gb games and then switched to dual layer 8.5gb DVDs... All thats changing is the capacity of an optical format thats already supported. HD-DVD isn't supported... What you are arguing makes no sense at all especially since having a 20gb HDD still allows you to play ALL of games that the 120gb HDD allows you to play. No one is being singled out with the HDD situation, so what exactly is your point?

You don't seem to udnerstand what I am saying it will be rough but doable in the next 2-3 years to used DVD9's for games but after that they have 2 choices move the platform to HDVD which can be done on the cheap to boot in 2+ years the standalone can be sold for 50$ and the Hdvd enabled units be no different in cost than they are now.

As for the HDD the 360 is showing its age more games need to drop the no HDD support thing and get to hammering out the best they can for the HDD enabled 360s, caches is key because it can add 50% more data to a single disc this is imporant because MP online games can not be on more than 1 disc, or are you ignoring the slow march to higher capastity games?.

Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

They also said they would need a bigger hard drive and now 2 years later they do, and in 2 years they will need Hdvd gaming as a last shot in the arm to keep the 360 relevant as they work on the 360s replacement.

A 20gb HDD and 120gb HDD are compatible with one another though. Thats like arguing if the 360 had 4.7gb games and then switched to dual layer 8.5gb DVDs... All thats changing is the capacity of an optical format thats already supported. HD-DVD isn't supported... What you are arguing makes no sense at all especially since having a 20gb HDD still allows you to play ALL of games that the 120gb HDD allows you to play. No one is being singled out with the HDD situation, so what exactly is your point?

You don't seem to udnerstand what I am saying it will be rough but doable in the next 2-3 years to used DVD9's for games but after that they have 2 choices move the platform to HDVD which can be done on the cheap to boot in 2+ years the standalone can be sold for 50$ and the Hdvd enabled units be no different in cost than they are now.

As for the HDD the 360 is showing its age more games need to drop the no HDD support thing and get to hammering out the best they can for the HDD enabled 360s, caches is key because it can add 50% more data to a single disc this is imporant because MP online games can not be on more than 1 disc, or are you ignoring the slow march to higher capastity games?.

Ignoring it? No I'm not ignoring it. I'm simply stating that it isn't needed in this generation of game console since most games don't exceed 8.5gb, only a hand full of blockbuster hits from major developers do/would. The games that do exceed 8.5gb have the HDD to flow over on even if its a 20gb HDD. It would be nice, yes, but they aren't going to take another multi million dollar hit over this. Ms would have to drop the price of their HD-DVD add-on (as you said) and develop a work around to enable it for gaming. They've stated that it could never be used for games, only movies, and undoubtedly that could be a lie, but no evidence has come forth to prove that statement otherwise. They can keep creating larger and larger HDDs for people or allow folks to drop their own in, but you won't see games the require 360 owners to purchase an HD-DVD add-on.

You can make the argument about the core and how certain games require the HDD but the choice to purchase the HDD with a console has been available since the beginning with the pro and core models. People knew full and well in 2005 that they might need a HDD. If MS requires over 11 million people to purchase a hardware add-on 3 to 4 years after a systems launch to play a game they will be committing suicide. They would need to include the HD-DVD add-on with said game much like FFXI and the PS2 HDD and the price would need to be dropped significantly.

I think you should know most of you are pretty scary when reading these things. Even IF MS had a thought about adding an internal drive, it would ONLY be for movies. You cannot change the format for games and screw the 10 million plus users out there already. It would just be a convenience for people who do want to watch HD DVD but not have an external player.

Do I think MS took the easy way out and stuck with DVD9? Of course they did. Just because most games can fit onto a DVD9 doesn't mean that all have to. MS wanted more RPG games, but they went and limited the developers to using less space! Those are the games that need that room for all the talking and cinemas needed in the games.

ALL MS is doing is holding on by barely helping out HD DVD and waiting to see which format takes the lead for there next console. At their rate, we should be seeing a new one in 2 years anyway, right? XBox in 01, 360 in 05, 720 in 09?

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

Why did you have to be an ass about it. I do think before I post. You don't "KNOW" anything. (notice the quotes) What makes you the expert? MS has done dumber things in the past.

Originally posted by gleone: The XBox720HD is definitely coming out. The release date is set for Q4 2008. I posted this in May 07! Old news.

Maybe that console will have a 100% failure rate. I think M$ should focus on getting the Xbox 360 working near-perfectly hardware wise like the PS3 before they go ahead and try to add in more things in the console or come out with a new console.

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

Why did you have to be an ass about it. I do think before I post. You don't "KNOW" anything. (notice the quotes) What makes you the expert? MS has done dumber things in the past.

You're right I was being an ass, I apologize. You are also right that I don't "KNOW" everything, as that ability would require magic or time travel. I just can't fathom how anyone could believe that MS would require their consumers to buy a whole new 360 for future 360 games. Sorry if I offended you.

Just so you guys know. HD DVD makes a 50 gb disc now which is comparable to Blu-Ray's 50 gb disc. The blu-ray disc's that the PS3 uses DO NOT HAVE 50 gb of space on 'em. If it did, the games would cost $100. I'm not a BIG MICROSOFT guy but I believe they're pretty smart in making $. They're waiting to see which format wins before they implement it into their machine. Maybe if they'd actually put in an HD DVD drive in the xbox360 years ago it would've won over on the movie industry but since it didn't, Sony was able to strong arm 'em into investing in blu-ray. Also, I hate that Microsoft charges $100 for a wireless internet adapter but I'm glad they didn't make it internal 'cause there are NEW WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES being introduced in the tech world which would make upgrading alot easier and faster than on the PS3. Can you imagine? The new tech will seem so fast and playing games over the internet with the PS3 will be like using dial-up. (haha!) I also hate that each group (sony & microsoft) made multiple consoles. Two would have sufficed. One with standard 20 gb hard drive and the other with a replaceable hard drive of your choice.

Originally posted by bigdawg10: I think you should know most of you are pretty scary when reading these things. Even IF MS had a thought about adding an internal drive, it would ONLY be for movies. You cannot change the format for games and screw the 10 million plus users out there already. It would just be a convenience for people who do want to watch HD DVD but not have an external player.

Do I think MS took the easy way out and stuck with DVD9? Of course they did. Just because most games can fit onto a DVD9 doesn't mean that all have to. MS wanted more RPG games, but they went and limited the developers to using less space! Those are the games that need that room for all the talking and cinemas needed in the games.

ALL MS is doing is holding on by barely helping out HD DVD and waiting to see which format takes the lead for there next console. At their rate, we should be seeing a new one in 2 years anyway, right? XBox in 01, 360 in 05, 720 in 09?

they can to get a few more eyars out of the console and they can do it on on the cheap with their buying power, look at it like this the external units would cost 50-80$ basically the price of a new game give or take 20, the new units would be sold at no extra cost to the consumer and older units being RMA'd could be swapped out with a HDVD enabled unit, this could add as much as 4 extra years tot eh 360s life span its very doable and not as bad as one might think it is.

Originally posted by borhan9: All this is is a marketing ploy to get everyone hyped up over the new drives.

No worse than sony going BR for the PS3 but gettign past the hype will they have the balls to switch to HDVD gaming in the coming years, I do not really want to see a new console come out for at least 5 or 6 more years and I want a polished well built one at that the 360 never had much focus the PS3 lost theirs and the WII well... they only have enough attention span to make a profit but not make the console more customizable.

Originally posted by djeazyg: I keep hearing that the extra space for games is not needed. Then why did I read in a magazine that Rockstar is having an issue stuffing all of the new Grand Theft Auto on a DVD9 and is requesting that MS allow them to use more hard drive space? I don't have the magazine here or I would just quote it. I read that GTA was delayed because of the PS3 being hard to code for and the 360 doesn't have enough disk space to accommodate the huge game. This is just what I read, I could be wrong about the whole thing.
But if the 360 would start to include a HD DVD drive and use it for games, that means that now you have to buy yet another 360 or you will be left out on any new game that would be released in the HD DVD format. When are people going to get sick of this shit and stop giving MS all their money.

The internal HD-DVD drive wouldn't be used for games... You can quote me on that. There will NEVER be a game on 360 that uses the HD-DVD format. EVER. MS would have to compensate the millions out there that bought 360s without the HD-DVD gaming capability and they are not about to plunk down that kind of cash, especially after spending millions upon millions on broken consoles and 3 year warranties. People really need to think before they post...

They also said they would need a bigger hard drive and now 2 years later they do, and in 2 years they will need Hdvd gaming as a last shot in the arm to keep the 360 relevant as they work on the 360s replacement.

A 20gb HDD and 120gb HDD are compatible with one another though. Thats like arguing if the 360 had 4.7gb games and then switched to dual layer 8.5gb DVDs... All thats changing is the capacity of an optical format thats already supported. HD-DVD isn't supported... What you are arguing makes no sense at all especially since having a 20gb HDD still allows you to play ALL of games that the 120gb HDD allows you to play. No one is being singled out with the HDD situation, so what exactly is your point?

You don't seem to udnerstand what I am saying it will be rough but doable in the next 2-3 years to used DVD9's for games but after that they have 2 choices move the platform to HDVD which can be done on the cheap to boot in 2+ years the standalone can be sold for 50$ and the Hdvd enabled units be no different in cost than they are now.

As for the HDD the 360 is showing its age more games need to drop the no HDD support thing and get to hammering out the best they can for the HDD enabled 360s, caches is key because it can add 50% more data to a single disc this is imporant because MP online games can not be on more than 1 disc, or are you ignoring the slow march to higher capastity games?.

Ignoring it? No I'm not ignoring it. I'm simply stating that it isn't needed in this generation of game console since most games don't exceed 8.5gb, only a hand full of blockbuster hits from major developers do/would. The games that do exceed 8.5gb have the HDD to flow over on even if its a 20gb HDD. It would be nice, yes, but they aren't going to take another multi million dollar hit over this. Ms would have to drop the price of their HD-DVD add-on (as you said) and develop a work around to enable it for gaming. They've stated that it could never be used for games, only movies, and undoubtedly that could be a lie, but no evidence has come forth to prove that statement otherwise. They can keep creating larger and larger HDDs for people or allow folks to drop their own in, but you won't see games the require 360 owners to purchase an HD-DVD add-on.

You can make the argument about the core and how certain games require the HDD but the choice to purchase the HDD with a console has been available since the beginning with the pro and core models. People knew full and well in 2005 that they might need a HDD. If MS requires over 11 million people to purchase a hardware add-on 3 to 4 years after a systems launch to play a game they will be committing suicide. They would need to include the HD-DVD add-on with said game much like FFXI and the PS2 HDD and the price would need to be dropped significantly.

If an Internal HD DVD drive is added, then people without Internal HD DVD will probably be able to go out and buy an external HD DVD Drive in order to use the new content, MS will probably provide a softwware update and possibly change the USB port on the 360 to a faster firewire port to accompany a larger, faster game-data stream. Just a suggestion.

really the only trouble with moving the platform to HDVD is the slow software sales as the enabled units saturate the market, but looking at the PS3 it would seem a better stop gap measure then moving to a whole not platform, by giving the 360 HDVD you remove most if not all of the limits on its gaming side.

It's probably best if it doesnt get an internal HD DVD drive. For one there are already too many variations of the 360 to choose from. Each are at different prices. A majority of the public already owns a 360 so why waste money on another that touts an internal HD DVD drive. Sony's PS crap 3 is already using the 360s sales strategy due to the fact of its costly Neo Geo priced like release (in which personally I think I would waste my money on the Neo Geo instead). MS needs not to stroll down the road of Sony. Nothing lies there except big profit losses. If anything statistics do show that a huge amount of parents purchase game consoles for their children to play video games not movies.